By Maha El Dahan
DUBAI, Oct 21 (Reuters) – Senior UAE diplomat Lana Nusseibeh entered the race to become the next United Nations secretary-general on Wednesday, injecting a prominent Middle Eastern candidate into a contest that has struggled to produce a consensus choice among the Security Council’s most powerful members.
Nusseibeh, a former UAE ambassador to the UN for more than a decade, told Reuters she would seek to restore the world body’s role as a diplomatic problem-solver at a time of mounting global crises.
“It’s clear that today we need a secretary-general that can recommit to the future of multilateralism and the future of the United Nations as a problem-solver rather than as a spectator to the world’s crises,” she said shortly before going public with her candidacy.
Nusseibeh, the UAE minister of state for foreign affairs, is a late entrant to the race. An informal Security Council poll had placed former Costa Rican Vice President Rebeca Grynspan as the narrow frontrunner, sources have said.
Although Grynspan has led the informal “straw polls,” last week she and all other candidates received two or more opposing votes from the ultimately decisive five permanent members of the council — Britain, China, France, Russia and the US.
Council members are negotiating over whether to hold another poll this Friday or at a later stage.
ENTREPRENEURIAL DIPLOMACY
Nusseibeh, 48, said she was approached by multiple countries during the last UN General Assembly to put herself forward. She previously led the UAE’s successful campaign for election to the Security Council. Diplomats in New York say she is respected as a competent manager.
“It’s recognized today that we need someone who offers generational change for the organization,” she said.
Her UN tenure overlapped with the outbreak of the Gaza war in 2023 when she secured the adoption of Resolution 2720 paving the way for the delivery of humanitarian aid.
Nusseibeh said she secured support for the resolution by arranging a visit by council members to the Rafah border crossing to see for themselves the situation on the ground, describing the move as part of her “creative entrepreneurial diplomacy” that characterizes her approach.
RELENTLESS DIPLOMACY
As a top UAE diplomat, Nusseibeh has championed Abu Dhabi’s assertive foreign policy and heavy focus on countering political Islam.
The UAE has faced criticism over Sudan after UN sanctions monitors described allegations that it provided military support to the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces as credible. The UAE denies the allegations.
Asked how the allegations might affect her candidacy, Nusseibeh said she had taken leave from her UAE post and would focus on Sudan’s humanitarian crisis.
A Nusseibeh victory would make her the second UN chief from the Middle East, after Egypt’s Boutros Boutros-Ghali.
“I come from a country that is younger than the United Nations but our region is one that has been facing severe challenges,” she said.
She would also become the first woman to lead the UN, though Nusseibeh said she was not running on her gender.
“I think it would be great if the next secretary-general was a woman but I’m not running because I’m a woman; I’m running because I am stubbornly optimistic about the future of the United Nations and I believe we need someone who is relentless in the pursuit of diplomacy to open doors.”
(Reporting by Maha El Dahan; Additional reporting at the United Nations by Antoni Slodkowski; Writing by Michael Georgy; Editing by Howard Goller)
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